ChangeWave: Discount Retailers Attracting Wealthy Shoppers
By Colleen Bohen -- TWICE, 8/6/2007
ROCKVILLE, MD. — ChangeWave Research, a market research firm, has found that even higher-income shoppers are choosing discount retailers instead of big-box electronics stores when shopping for their home electronics gear.
The company surveyed 3,881 of its ChangeWave Alliance members — a network of business, technology and medical professionals — from June 6-12 on their "electronic gadgets and home entertainment shopping."
In terms of customer preference, discount retailers Costco and Wal-Mart each gained 2 percentage points since the group's last survey in March 2007. Target also saw an increase, gaining 3 points to bring it up to 8 percent.
Though Best Buy still proved to be the most preferred CE store overall, it lost 3 points since the last survey, dropping to 51 percent share. Circuit City lost 5 points, bringing it down to 17 percent, and CompUSA reached what ChangeWave called "a new all-time low" by losing 4 points since the March survey, bringing it down to a 5 percent share.
Overall spending in the consumer electronics market was said to look "slightly better" than it did a year ago. However, ChangeWave said it expected a spending dip over the next 90 days because 32 percent of respondents said they'll spend less on electronics during that time, while only 26 percent said they'd spend more.
In terms of specific products, LCD TVs continued to top the list of products that consumers said they expect to buy over the next 90 days, with 14 percent saying they would buy one.
Digital cameras are expected to have the "greatest momentum" over the next 90 days because 13 percent of respondents said they plan to buy within the category over that time period, a 2-point gain since the March survey.
The company also examined the high-definition DVD market. It found that Toshiba's HD-DVD player is still the market share leader with 7 percent compared with Sony Blu-ray's 1 percent. In the future, 3 percent of respondents said that they expect to buy an HD-DVD player, up 1 point from the March survey. One percent plan to buy a Blu-ray player; this number remains unchanged. Two percent say they plan to buy a player than can play both formats.
Finally, ChanceWave found that Apple iPod ownership is up "slightly" since its previous survey. The increase was lead by the iPod Nano, which the company found to be up 2 points, to 15 percent.
The group noted that only a "small number" of respondents said they currently own an Apple TV but that 8 percent said they are likely to buy one in the next 90 days.
